Book Description
Internationally acclaimed Martha Grimes once again turns her hand to crafting a story of such rich atmosphere and intricate suspense that she transports the reader to a world unlike any other.
A once-fashionable, now fading resort hotel. A spinster Aunt living in an attic. Dirt roads that lead to dead ends. A house full of secrets and old, dusty furnishings, uninhabited for almost half a century. A twelve-year-old girl with a passion for double-chocolate ice-cream sodas, and decaying lake-fronts, and an obsession with the death by drowning of another young girl, forty years before.
Like all important events in the past, there are repercussions and ramifications in the present. In the world as seen by Martha Grimes, those repercussions simmer and seethe and wind their way through hearts and souls. The ramifications can be subtle. Or exhilarating. Passionate. And they can also be deadly.
Hotel Paradise is a delicate yet excruciating view of the pettiness and cruelty of small town America. It is a look at the difficult decisions a young girl must make on her way to becoming an adult and the choices she must make between right and wrong, between love and truth, between life and death. It is a novel with extraordinary range and depth that ultimately becomes a thrilling morality play.
With its narrative grace, its compelling characters, and its moment-to-moment suspense,
Hotel Paradise is Martha Grimes at the top of her form.
Book Description
A new Prologue and Epilogue by the author bring this story of gyppo loggers, longshoremen, millwrights, and whistle punks into the twenty-first century, describing Coos Bay's transition from timber town to a retirement and tourist community, where the site of a former Weyerhaeuser complex is now home to the Coquille Indian Tribe's Mill Casino.
Book Description
This book is excellently written. The book included many great details about China and Chengdu. For the average reader, it is very descriptive and pretty interesting. There are some entertaining parts such as the story telling and the stories behind the food. The tips section is very useful as it tells you where to go and how to get there. The links are going to be very useful. The references to actual people's thoughts and feelings about Chengdu were very nice. If you are planning a long and leisurely trip to Chengdu and other parts of China, this is probably the best book for you.
Book Description
After college, Anne Thomas Soffee journeyed to Los Angeles to start a career as a rock journalist and small-time heavy metal flack. This hilarious peek into the early years of the hair-band era reveals the hierarchy of fishnets, bustiers, and chicks with the Holy Grail—a backstage pass. A taste for other people’s prescriptions and too much beer edges her freelance journalism work right off her schedule. She struggles with not being thin enough, pretty enough, or cool enough when, in the midst of the L.A. riots, Soffee is offered a coveted slot in Virginia Commonwealth University's MFA writing program. Determined to pull herself out of current habits, Soffee starts turning her life around, making a stop at rehab before she heads off to graduate school. Her quarter-life crisis is packed with offbeat characters that prove that fact is often funnier than fiction.
Customer Reviews:
Not bad but..........2007-02-05
...not great either. I think I was expecting a real rock and roll expose but only got a few hints and snippets of what really went on in that world at that time. Most of the story takes place at a bar and focuses on the author's increasing disillusion with her chosen life, and her subsequent substance abuse -- unfortuantely a tale that's been done to death nowadays. I liked "Snake Hips" much better, if only because it was not the story of a drug-and-booze-fueled downfall, but of a woman finally finding herself and some insights on life and creativity. Anne's style, I will say, is very engaging. Truly she comes across like your "snarky best friend" and the text pulls you right into her world. I read this book in one sitting because I literally could not put it down, and yet I was left wanting more from the story than she gave. She's got sarcasm down to a science, but I kept waiting for something to really *happen* besides a few brushes with lesser-known musicians and a disastrous affair with a name-deleted "punk icon". C'mon, Anne, if you're really THAT hardcore of a rock chick you'd name some names here, lawsuits be damned. And you'd give a lot more gory detail on the naughty bits, too. The drag queens were hilarious but we never really got to know any of them up close. You circle around the edge of telling us what really happened out there and how it made you feel, but always pull back before we can get to see the whole picture. I was expecting a rock documentary, but only ended up with a few fuzzy snapshots. Oh well. Better that you're now a sober bellydancing author than just another street kid in L.A. who becomes a statistic. I will say that Glenn Danzig sounded like an interesting guy... but again, too bad you didn't get close enough to him to get more details. I would say to Amazon customers that this book is an OK read, but it's not a real "insider tell-all" if that's what you're looking for. And definitely don't read it if you're looking to be inspired by the rock scene, because you will come away depressed. In the end you will start to root for Anne's family, who keeps trying desperately to get her to come home. (And a good thing she did, otherwise we'd never have had "Snake Hips".) Call me square but I like her tale of bellydancing sobriety much better.
Nerd Girl does rock!.......2005-10-06
I read a lot of books where the writing is good, but the subject matter isn't so interesting and vice versa, but this is a gem. Anne's writing style is like a welcome letter from your favorite snarky friend. Well-balanced self-deprecation (no one can accuse her of being self-aggrandizing, but it's no pity party either) carry the reader through her attempts to go from small time VA press to journalist at the major rock rags. In her adventure, the reader is treated to dish about small time industry insiders, Glenn Danzig, Kelsey Grammer, Riki Rachtman, a certain unnamed (but easily figured out) skeezy figurehead of the punk rock scene, GWAR, and a host of catty drag queens.
Never a dull moment! As a former Richmonder, I admit to having a soft spot for the cracked out wanna-be boyfriend story, involving a member of a well known local band. Names withheld to protect the less-than-innocent.
If you liked Snake Hips, you'll like this. If you like tell-all punk and metal bios, you'll like this. If you like both of those things? This is the book you've been waiting for.
Keëping it Nërd.......2005-09-15
... Ms. Søffëe delivers another laugh-your-brains-oüt memoir. Armed with moxie and idealism, the author heads for Los Angeles to make her mark in the music journalism world, determined to keep it rockin' while hair metal is on its last gasp and being supplanted by grunge and alternative. While slightly more discreet than in her previous Snake Hips, Ms. Soffee names names which had me crowing in recognition. Her ability to laugh at herself in hindsight and make others follow her through the bum boyfriends, getting leeched by a Big Name and the benzos chased with beer without feeling like they're watching a trainwreck and gorefest. I highly recommend!
I knew you when.......2005-09-11
OK, I haven't read it yet, but I intend to. The thing is that I went to high school with the author and am thrilled to suddenly discover what has become of her.
The last I saw her I was running from a Grateful Dead concert having a severely bad acid trip. That was over twenty years ago.
I expect to enjoy her writing and look forward to the adult who has emerged from the teenager of my memory.
Not your typical memoir.......2005-09-10
Another memoir of a pivotal time of her life, but certainly not the same old memoir you find on bookstore shelves today. This one addresses the author's attempts to make it in LA as music journalist, and true to her chosen career path, the book is written less as an angsty, emotion laden memoir and more as a review.
This is not to disparage the book or to say that it is emotionless, because it's not. It just doesn't bog itself down with so much extraneous whining like many of the 400 page pity parties that are in print now. She doesn't back away from sharing intimate details, but she also doesn't feel the need to delve endlessly into the why and wherefor of her actions. She is unapologetic in her life recap, and that is something that is hard to find in the modern memoir.
If you remember the age of the hair bands, you will love this book for its insider information as much as for the overall story. This was a lot of fun to read.
Customer Reviews:
Not her best..........2005-10-28
This is my first oldie by Sherrilyn Kenyon and I have read and loved all her new books. I decided to get my hands on some her older and harder to find books that she had written at the beginning of her career. I was very disappointed in this book. There was a flaw in each main character that I found vastly irritating; the heroine, Alix, is constantly on the verge of tears and it gets repetitive after the first 10 times; the hero, Devyn, has no faith in Alix, even so close to the end. He's so willing to believe the worst in her. I thought he'd be able to rise above his misgivings.
All in all this book just didn't grab my attention and I was easily distracted by other things. I love a book that keeps me reading into the small hours of the morning.
Yuck.......2003-05-22
Don't waste your money on this book - my ten year old could write a better novel.
Very enjoyable.......2002-03-25
I have just recently discovered Sherrilyn Kenyon. I read her new book "Fantasy Lover" and knew I had to read everything else she has written. I really enjoyed this sci-fi romance. I liked the fact that the characters had problems and weren't picture perfect. The supporting characters made the story whole and I would enjoy read stories about some of them.
This is the story of Alix, a slave who is a wiz mechanic and she hires on to be the engineer on Devyn's ship. She hopes to someday have enough money to get her own ship. Devyn has no idea that she is a slave and she keeps that info a secret from him. Devyn is a runner. He is a former HAWC doctor who had had enough of the horrible things he was assigned to do and now uses his ship to carry medical supplies and food to those in deperate need.
Neither of them realize that they are the targets of a evil man who will stop at nothing to see them harmed. Together they must learn to tust each other and face the evil. Along the way they find passion and love but its a struggle.
The book was an enjoyable read for an afternoon. I plan on reading more of this author's books.
Incredible!!.......1998-07-24
I just got this book the other day & I stayed up all night reading it. It was incredible. Devyn Kell is too great to believe. I wish I could meet him in real life! This is definitely one of my all time keepers.
Read this Book!!.......1998-06-09
I don't normally read futuristics, but my sister loaned me this and all I have to say is it was one of the greatest books I've ever read. It has humor and a hero to die for. If you haven't read it, you have to!
Average customer rating:
- An Outstanding Blend of Scholarship and Humanity
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Strangers in the Land of Paradise: Creation of African American Community in Buffalo (Blacks in the Diaspora)
Lillian Serece Williams
Manufacturer: Indiana University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0253335523 |
Book Description
Strangers in the Land of Paradise examines the creation of an African American community as a distinct cultural entity. It delineates values and institutions that the black migrant population brought with it from the South, as well as those that evolved as a result of their interaction with blacks native to the city and the city itself.
Customer Reviews:
An Outstanding Blend of Scholarship and Humanity.......2000-03-04
"Strangers in the Land of Paradise" by Lillian Serece Williams is a brilliantly written book about the creation of an African American community in Buffalo, New York from 1900-1940. Illuminating with new information, pictures and graphs, it answers many questions about the daily life experiences of a group of Americans adjusting to political and economic changes. The family support system that Williams delineated in this turn-of-the-century community is one of those strengths that too often are overlooked in contemporary literature on African Americans. Yet these are important strengths that are present in contemporary African American communities across the nation and upon which I frequently draw to treat some of my patients.
This timely, outstanding blend of scholarship and humanity places this work in the category of a genuine classic. The book is a "must" for every serious scholar of American history. "No Shame in my Game" by Katherine Neuman would be a wonderful contemporary companion.
Book Description
The most exciting achievement to date from the acclaimed author of Sleepers and Gangster, Paradise City is a riveting thriller of two cops and two countries, a stunning crime novel about the roots of revenge, honor, and evil.
As a fifteen-year-old, Giancarlo Lo Manto learned about injustice the hard way. His father was gunned down by the Camorra, the murderous clan run by Don Nicola Rossi. When his mother moved him from New York back to his family’s ancestral home in Naples, Gian found himself face-to-face with the source of the mob’s strength, the spring that spawned its deadly killers.
Today, twenty-three years later, he is a dogged detective on the Naples police force, homicide division, the most dangerous beat in Europe. He is the nemesis of all who export evil, the man who stops it before it spreads overseas. His efforts have not gone unnoticed. “The strength of Naples reinforces the muscle of New York”–and now the two worlds are about to collide.
In the highest towers of the most expensive streets of New York City, Pete Rossi, the son of Don Nicola, has decided to bring Gian back to America–permanently. When Gian learns that his teenage niece, Paula, has gone missing in Manhattan, he cancels a much-needed vacation to Capri, to paradise, joking that “one island is just as good as the other.”
Gian’s homecoming will be anything but smooth. Someone must always watch his back, and Detective Jennifer Fabini gets the job. A gifted officer with her own personal demons, Jennifer thinks she’ll be dealing with a peasant from the old country. The handsome, reserved, unrelenting Gian is a revelation: an irritant and a temptation–especially for a woman who has sworn off cops as lovers. Together the two must solve a disappearance that appears to be a kidnapping . . . but turns out to be a deadly trap.
As they dash from the sun-struck villages of Italy to the darkest drug dens of New York, their journey links old-world honor and modern-day danger, and ends in a dizzying explosion of the present and the past. Paradise City is Lorenzo Carcaterra’s richest entertainment, a book that is at once a sensational crime novel and a provocative exploration of his trademark themes: violence and innocence, love and revenge.
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The most exciting achievement to date from the acclaimed author of Sleepers and Gangster, Paradise City is a riveting thriller of two cops and two countries, a stunning crime novel about the roots of revenge, honor, and evil.
As a fifteen-year-old, Giancarlo Lo Manto learned about injustice the hard way. His father was gunned down by the Camorra, the murderous clan run by Don Nicola Rossi. When his mother moved him from New York back to his family's ancestral home in Naples, Gian found himself face-to-face with the source of the mob's strength, the spring that spawned its deadly killers.
Today, twenty-three years later, he is a dogged detective on the Naples police force, homicide division, the most dangerous beat in Europe. He is the nemesis of all who export evil, the man who stops it before it spreads overseas. His efforts have not gone unnoticed. “The strength of Naples reinforces the muscle of New York”—and now the two worlds are about to collide.
In the highest towers of the most expensive streets of New York City, Pete Rossi, the son of Don Nicola, has decided to bring Gian back to America—permanently. When Gian learns that his teenage niece, Paula, has gone missing in Manhattan, he cancels a much-needed vacation to Capri, to paradise, joking that “one island is just as good as the other.”Gian's homecoming will be anything but smooth. Someone must always watch his back, and Detective Jennifer Fabini gets the job. A gifted officer with her own personal demons, Jennifer thinks she'll be dealing with a peasant from the old country. The handsome, reserved, unrelenting Gian is a revelation: an irritant and a temptation—especially for a woman who has sworn off cops as lovers. Together the two must solve a disappearance that appears to be a kidnapping…but turns out to be a deadly trap.
As they dash from the sun-struck villages of Italy to the darkest drug dens of New York, their journey links old-world honor and modern-day danger, and ends in a dizzying explosion of the present and the past. Paradise City is Lorenzo Carcaterra's richest entertainment, a book that is at once a sensational crime novel and a provocative exploration of his trademark themes: violence and innocence, love and revenge.
Customer Reviews:
Middle aged housewife who wouldn't be caught dead watching Matlock (or the Simpsons )strikes back and says.......2005-11-23
this is an enjoyable read. Not great but good enough to have me search out his other novels. The ending is a bit much and the romance is gratuitious. Not all that orginal in plot or character but well written withal and some page turning invloved. Must go now and gnaw on my bone
An unoriginal and painful read.......2004-11-11
Fans of NBC's Law and Order may be tempted to pick up Paradise City, the newest novel by writer/producer, Lorenzo Carcaterra. Don't waste your money. Paradise City lacks even the mild entertainment value of those addicting cop shows and, instead, is a drain on time and intellect. Filled with clunky dialogue and forced allusions to modern pop culture, Paradise City is set in the New York City of 2003 and follows the exploits of a tough-but-honest detective from Naples and his trying-to-prove-she's-not-just-a-pretty-face partner as they try to bring down the Neopolitan mob. To the few of you who may think that plot is interesting enough to consider buying this book: rent Rush Hour and Lethal Weapon and save yourself twenty bucks.
The twists and turns in this novel are not only unpredictable but unbelievable as well. The love story (gasp!) between the two detectives is an obvious dog-bone for the middle-aged housewives devouring the novel between episodes of Matlock. The characters are all stock heroes and villains, nothing more than archetypal collages of hundreds of characters you've seen or read before. The only thing offered as character development is a series of ridiculous back-stories which are revealed halfway through the novel and for some reason change everything. And, in the end, Carcaterra doesn't leave us with an even remotely entertaining shoot-out. Carcaterra may have helped to create one of the most popular TV crime shows on the air, but his talents are more suited for NBC, where a bad episode only wastes an hour of a person's time and may be brightened by a preview of the newest episode of Scrubs. Or even Joey.
Worlds collide.......2004-10-14
Lorenzo Carcaterra remains the don of crime-writing that's scraped directly from America's grittiest streets, and with "Paradise City," he extends his reach to Naples -- a city he last visited in "Street Boys." Now he pulls off the labyrinthine plot -- worthy of a scheming godfather or, at least, a producer of TV's "Law & Order" -- with his signature style: Plenty of action, plenty of love and plenty of paisan.
From "Apaches" to "Sleepers" to "Gangster," Carcaterra has laid claim to the urban-crime landscape like no writer since Mario Puzo. Carcaterra's storytelling is real and, occasionally, disturbing. But it isn't oversimplified law and disorder with a side of blood and guts ... his characters are authentic and tangible. He doesn't write like a lawyer who's trying to be gritty, or an ink-stained Hollywood wretch trying to maximize body count-per-frame. He writes like the guy he is: Somebody who's been immersed in the downside of a rough city and survived.
You want your crime-fiction straight from the hip and genuine? Carcaterra is your guy.
A violent, gritty tale of revenge and rough justice.......2004-10-01
You know Lorenzo Carcaterra's work. I mean, you know his work. Does the television show "Law & Order" mean anything to you? Carcaterra is a writer and producer for the program, which has been on for how many decades now? In addition to that, three of his novels --- APACHES, GANGSTER and STREET BOYS --- are in active development for feature film adaptation. He has co-scripted Beyond the Sea, which should be released soon. He's also...well you get the idea. He's everywhere. My favorite "everywhere" for the moment, however, is PARADISE CITY, Carcaterra's latest novel.
Carcaterra is a master at combining several different elements that are lethal enough individually into an explosive mix. PARADISE CITY is an example of Carcaterra at his best. His protagonist here is Giancarlo Lo Manto. Lo Manto, born in New York City, moved to Naples, Italy as a teenager. Now a policeman, Lo Manto wages a one-man war against the Italian Mafia. His vendetta is the result of a blood-oath he swore over the body of his late father, an honest-working man who paid for his integrity with a violent, senseless death on the streets of New York City.
Lo Manto is lured back to New York City due to the kidnapping of his beloved niece by the crime family of Mafia boss Pete Rossi. Lo Manto's police work in Naples has cut dramatically into Rossi's overseas operations, and Rossi accordingly wants --- and needs --- Lo Manto out of the way. Rossi sees some rough justice in bringing Lo Manto back to his birthplace to die. Lo Manto, however, has some very different plans. Fueled by the desire to rescue his niece and avenge his murdered father, Lo Manto begins a systematic rampage through the back streets and neighborhoods of New York City, leading to a violent, apocalyptic climax between good and evil.
PARADISE CITY is a violent, gritty tale of revenge and rough justice. Fans of the crime/police genre will see the relationship forming between Lo Manto and his NYPD babysitter, Detective Jennifer Fabini, before the two even meet. But Carcaterra handles the chemistry between the two so well that readers would be disappointed if they didn't hook up! PARADISE CITY also contains a subtle but very visible plug for "Law & Order." Hopefully, that august program will at some point return the favor. On the other hand, maybe that won't be necessary. Recommended.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Don't miss this powerful and exciting novel........2004-09-29
Giancarlo Lo Manto was fifteen years old when his father was killed by the Camorra, New York's violent clan run by Don Nicola Rossi. Soon after, Giancarlo's mother packed everything up and moved them back to their ancestor's home in Naples, Italy.
Twenty-three years later, Gian is a detective on the Naples police force and his mission to put an end to the Camorra's reign is in full force.
The Camorra, now run by Nicola Rossi's son Pete, is stronger than ever and their promise to putting a stop to Gian, permanently, is one they will keep.
Gian has spent years staying one step ahead of the Camorra until the day he gets news of his niece being kidnapped. Gian returns to New York to be paired up with Detective Jennifer Fabini. Fabini, hiding her own secrets, begins a desperate search for Gian's niece only to realize that the disappearance is a deadly trap and both she and Gian are in great danger.
"Paradise City' is a first-rate thriller. The fast-paced plot, spiked with violence, love and revenge, will keep readers turning the pages as the main characters race from the villages of Italy, to the dark alley's of New York. At turns a powerful story of revenge, `Paradise City' is also an interesting character study of two damaged adults struggling to find love and happiness.
Lorenzo Carcaterra is an excellent writer, especially when he writes about the Mob and big city crime and this novel is his best since `Apaches', don't miss it.
A MUST read!
Nick Gonnella
Average customer rating:
- A Poetic Celebration of Baseball, Sports, and Cities by Baseball's Most Intellectual Commissioner
- This book is amazing
- Timeless Insights and Valedictory Thoughts
- Timeless Insights and Valedictory Thoughts
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Take Time for Paradise: Americans and Their Games
A. Bartlett Giamatti
Manufacturer: Summit Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0671735292 |
Customer Reviews:
A Poetic Celebration of Baseball, Sports, and Cities by Baseball's Most Intellectual Commissioner.......2007-02-18
All men who have served as Commissioner of Baseball--a position more people probably aspire to than aspire to be President of the United States--have a dull sameness in their resumes and their manner of speech compared to the late A. Bartlett Giamatti, who died in 1989 in his rookie season as Commissioner, the only baseball commissioner to be a Renaissance Scholar and President of Yale University.
Giamatti's book is a celebration of baseball's "freedom (for) the promise of an energetic, complex order." "Baseball," Giamtti writes, "fulfills the promise that America made to itself to cherish the individual while recognizing the overarching claims of the group. It sends its players out (around the bases) in order to return again, allowing all the freedom to accomplish great things in a dangerous world. So baseball restates a version of America's promises every time it is played. The playing of the game is a restatement of the promises that we can all be free, that all succeed."
"Sport," Giamatti writes, "contains within itself, as a self-transforming activity, fueld by instinct and intellect alike, the motive for freedom. The very elaboration of sport--it's internal conventions of all kinds, its ceremonies, its endless meshes entangling itself--are for the purposes of training and testing (perhaps by defeating) and rewarding the rousing motion within us to find a moment (or more) of freedom. Freedom is that state where energy and order merge and complexity is purified into a simple coherence, a fitness of parts and purpose and passions that cannot be surpassed and whose goal could only be to be itself.
"If we have known freedom, then we love it; it we love freedom, then we fear, at some level (individually or collectively)its loss. And then we cherish sport. As our forbears did, we remind ourselves through sport of what, here on earth, is our noblest hope. Through sport, we create our daily portion of freedom."
Giamatti's eloquence and unique voice ranges widely over other subjects.
"Human beings made and make cities, and only human beings kill cities, or let them die. We enjoy deluding ourselves in this as in other things. We enjoy believing that there are forces out there completely determining our fate, natural forces--or forces so strong and overwhelming as to be like natural forces--that send cities through organic or biological phases of birth, growth, and decay. We avoid the knowledge that cities are at best works of art, and at worst ungainly artifacts--but never flowers or even weeds--and that we, not some mysterious forces or cosmic biological system, control the creation and life of a city....
"A city is a collection of disparate families who agree to a fiction: they agree to live AS IF they were as close in blood or ties of kinship as in fact they are in physical proximity. Choosing life in an artifact, people agree to live in a state of similitude. A city is a place where ties of proximity, activity and self-interest assume the role of family ties. It is a considerable pact, a city. If a family is an expression of continuity through biology, a city is an expression of continuity through will and imagination--through mental choices making artifice, not through physical reproduction.
"This act of will and imagination, this city, expresses a set of common and continuing needs. These needs are usually expressed as commercial. Cities, we are told, are essentially mediums for commerce--trading, buying, selling, financing. They are centers of negotiation, not simply in all the varieties of commerce, but also of lawmaking and rule-giving--of legislation in all its variety. Cities are centers of negotiations of interests, of competing ideas, of us together against separateness, of me against aloneness of all...entailed at first by work, the work of connecting and assaying, of affiliating and discriminating that markets and legislatures, commerece and courts, traders and advocates carry on....
"The defining characteristic of a city over time is political. Indeed, the word political contains at its root the Greek polis, or city. Politics is the art of making choices and finding agreements in public--or the art of making public choices and agreements. Politics is the ultimate act of negotiation in a city, but it is only relective of the constant activity of the city, as individual, daily choices and agreements and decisions, allowing flowing from the central choice not to live alone but among others, swirl around and make up rambunctious, noisy, restless, demanding, hectic, city life.
"Over millenia, this refinement of negotiation, of balancing private need and public obligation, personal desire and public duty, and keen interests of the one and the many into a common, shared set of agreements--becomes a civilization. That is the public version of what binds us. That state is achieved because city dwellers as individuals or as families or as groups have smoothed the edges of private desire so as to fit, or at least work in, with all the other city dwellers,without undue abrasion, without sharp edges forever picking and wounding, each refining an individual capacity for those thousands of daily, instantaneous negotiations that keep crowded city life from being a constant brawl or ceaseless shoving match....We admire that capacity to proceed, neither impeded nor impeding....
"Many give up...they go to the suburbs, that under-city that is neither urban nor rural, that non-city which is the place of surcease, not of choosing--where energy, to the extent it is desired, is imported but not created; where all decisions are basically private and existence is nonpolitical; where in choosing to give up the stress of endless choosing there is only one choice; to live as if not in a family but rather to live as if alone, and to do so near (that is like-minded, like-colored, and like-employed) families....And when more than some--when many--opt for the suburb, the city begins to die. When those who can make the choice leave, by that choice a city falters because it retains only those who have no choice but stay. Where cities are absorptive and inclusive, suburbs are not. Their impermeability or exclusivity is precisely their allure."
I personally think Giamatti is much too hard on suburbs and suburbanites, but these excerpts give the flavor of the book. Those wanting a book about the day to day mechanics of baseball or other sports should go elsewhere. Those wanting a thoughtful look at the role of baseball in sports, the role of sports in cities and the life of country as a whole, the role of athletes, and the drug culture, and the sports writers, and the fans, should read this book.
The language is poetic, and grandiose. The assertions are one man's only rarely documented opinion. But, in reading this book, one will find visions, insights, and profundity about American life far more on the order of Alexis deToqueville than on the order of your favorite sportswriter.
This book is amazing.......2006-05-14
Giamatti's work here is an insightful look into the spectacle of baseball and sport in general and how they intereact with society and social values. It's a must-read for any baseball-bred sports fan.
Timeless Insights and Valedictory Thoughts.......2000-05-23
A. Bartlett Giamatti wrote this book immediately prior to his unexpected death in 1989. It appeared in print posthumously. That he would pen a paen to baseball at the height of the Pete Rose scandal, as his last published work, is ironic. His prose is sublime. The slender volume is a monograph on the nature of the game of baseball. It is timeless because it is not tied to temporal events. With little alteration, the book could have been written a hundred years ago, or (I hope) a hundred years hence. The Commissioner of Baseball and former Yale Professor of Renaissance Literature explores the intellectual facination of the game. From the geometry of the diamond to the Homeric nature of the baserunner's struggle to reach home again, Giamatti's story is enlightening as well as entertaining. Insights into the nature of our society flow naturally, given that sport in general should be seen in the context of the civilization that spawns it. One that I found to be especially memorable was on the commonalities of learning that change from generation to generation. Giamatti wrote of how the rising generation would understand the world through a computer screen, even as their progenitors had seen it through books, and of the differences, both great and small, that it would make to the thought patterns of our young. All this against the literally timneless fabric of a game played without a clock. -Lloyd A. Conway
Timeless Insights and Valedictory Thoughts.......2000-05-23
A. Bartlett Giamatti wrote this book immediately prior to his unexpected death in 1989. It appeared in print posthumously. That he would pen a paen to baseball at the height of the Pete Rose scandal, as his last published work, is ironic. His prose is sublime. The slender volume is a monograph on the nature of the game of baseball. It is timeless because it is not tied to temporal events. With little alteration, the book could have been written a hundred years ago, or (I hope) a hundred years hence. The Commissioner of Baseball and former Yale Professor of Renaissance Literature explores the intellectual facination of the game. From the geometry of the diamond to the Homeric nature of the baserunner's struggle to reach home again, Giamatti's story is enlightening as well as entertaining. Insights into the nature of our society flow naturally, given that sport in general should be seen in the context of the civilization that spawns it. One that I found to be especially memorable was on the commonalities of learning that change from generation to generation. Giamatti wrote of how the rising generation would understand the world through a computer screen, even as their progenitors had seen it through books, and of the differences, both great and small, that it would make to the thought patterns of our young. All this against the literally timneless fabric of a game played without a clock. -Lloyd A. Conway
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This Small City Will Be a Mexican Paradise: Exploring the Origins of Mexican Culture in Los Angeles, 1821-1846
Michael J. González
Manufacturer: University of New Mexico Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Mexico
| Americas
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Antebellum
| 19th Century
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ASIN: 0826336078 |
Book Description
Using archival materials that have largely escaped study, Michael J. González presents a bold new interpretation about life in Los Angeles between 1821 and 1846, the years that Mexico governed California. González goes beyond descriptions of cattle, ranchos, and aristocratic landowners who disdained Mexico—all the elements central to the romance of the “California Pastoral”—and introduces an alternative view. He argues that the people of Los Angeles, the angeleños, feared Indians. To ease their minds and find reassurance that they did not stand alone against the Indian menace, the angeleños imitated the life and ways of their compatriots in the Mexican interior.
González makes his case by focusing on a petition composed in 1846 and selects particular words to trace the progress of angeleño thinking. He begins by explaining why the angeleños felt threatened by Indians. He then shows that one of the qualities the angeleños admired most about Mexican life was liberal thought. To remove the Indians, and adopt the liberal principles they coveted, the angeleños used war and violence. When they had killed or subdued the Indians, González concludes, the angeleños fashioned the identity they had long cherished and believed, as one man proclaimed, that they were now “Mexican to the four sides” of their heart.
González describes how the residents of Mexican Los Angeles adjusted to life in provincial California.
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A Paradise in the City: Cleveland Botanical Garden
Diana Tittle
Manufacturer: Orange Frazer Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Nature & Wildlife
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Botany
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All Titles
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ASIN: 1882203461 |
Book Description
Whether you're making your first or your fiftieth visit to Cleveland Botanical Garden, whether you're an avid gardener or know someone who is, A Paradise in the City is for you. Much more than an assemblage of pretty pictures, this gorgeous book is as lively as the unique cultural institution it depicts. Drink in the beauty and tranquility of 10 acres of exquisite gardens—each one a gem, each one with its own unique personality. Experience the fun and excitement of trekking through a butterfly-filled Costa Rican cloud forest and the strange and wonderful Madagascan spiny desert. Each time you return to these pages, you'll enjoy a total immersion into the wonderful world of plants—and find plenty of inspiration for your own garden.
Books:
- It's not fair, Jeremy Spencer's parents let him stay up all night!: A Guide to the Tougher Parts of Parenting
- It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy
- Junebug
- Jupiter's Bones: A Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus Novel (Peter Decker & Rina Lazarus Novels)
- Kingdom Come: The Final Victory: The Final Victory (Left Behind #13)
- Last and First Men and Star Maker : Two Science Fiction Novels
- Managing Customers as Investments: The Strategic Value of Customers in the Long Run
- Mariel Hemingway's Healthy Living from the Inside Out: Every Woman's Guide to Real Beauty, Renewed Energy, and a Radiant Life
- Marooned in Realtime
- Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
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